ST ALEXANDER THE CHARCOAL BURNER, BISHOP

ST ALEXANDER THE CHARCOAL BURNER, BISHOP - 11 AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 11th August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST ALEXANDER THE CHARCOAL BURNER, BISHOP

Saint Alexander, known as "The charcoal burner (Carbonarius), was Bishop of Comana, in Pontus. Whether he was the first to occupy that see is open to discussion. The Bollandists have also a long paper as to the exact location of Comana as there were several plates of that name, but decide for Pontus, near Neo-Caesarea.

HE HAD TAKEN UP THE WORK OF BURNING CHARCOAL OUT OF HUMILITY

The curious name of the saint comes from the fact that he had, out of humility, taken up the work of burning charcoal, so as to escape worldly honours. He is called a philosopher, but it is not certain that the term is to be taken literally. His philosophy consisted rather in his preference of heavenly to earthly things.

GREGORY TOOK THE SUGGESTION SERIOUSLY

The discovery of his virtues was due to the very contempt with which he had been regarded. St Gregory Thaumaturgus had been asked to come to Comana to help select a bishop for that place. As he rejected all the candidates, someone in derision suggested that he might accept Alexander, the charcoal-burner. Gregory took the suggestion seriously, summoned Alexander, and found that he had to do with a saint and a man of great capabilities.

HE WAS MADE BISHOP

Alexander was made bishop of the see, administered it with remarkable wisdom and ultimately gave up his life for the Faith, being burned to death in the persecution of Decius.

HIS NAME IS NOT FOUND IN ANY OF THE OLD GREEK OR ROMAN CALENDARS

The vagueness of the information we have about him comes from the fact that his name is not found in any of the old Greek or Roman calendars. He would have been absolutely unknown were it not for a discourse pronounced by St Gregory of Nyssa, on the life of St Gregory Thaumaturgus, in which the election of Alexander is incidentally described. In the modern Roman Martyrology his name occurs, and he is described as a "philosophus disertissimus." His feast is kept on August 11.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

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